Romania

Fagaras (Hungarian: Fogaras, German: Fogarasch) is a
city in central Romania, county Brasov.
It lies on the river Olt and has a population of 35,400
inhabitants as of 2004.
Ethnically the city became monocolour, since Germans
and Hungarians slowly emigrated, nevertleless
there are many evidences of their past.
Its name is derived from the Romanian word fag, meaning "beech."
A more convincing story for the origin of the city
name is derived from Hungarian, FOGARAS as wood(=FA)
money(=GARAS), the legends states that money made of
wood had been used to pay the peasants who
built the fortress around 1310.
During the reign of Gábor Bethlen (1613-1629),
governor of Transylvania, the town became an economic
role model city in southern Transylvania.
In that time Gábor Bethlen completely rebuilt the fortress.
It worth to mention the role of orphan Kata Bethlen (1700-1759),
whose grave is in front of the Reformed church of Fagaras.
The church holds several precious relics of her life.
Her bridal skirt, with the family coat of arms on it, and
her bridal veil now covers the altar table.
Both are made of yellow silk.

Close to the city center is the Reformed Church
built around 1715-1740 by Teleki Jozsef.
Not far from the church is the actual Radu Negru
High school built around 1909, started as a Hungarian
middle school where for a short period of
time Babits Mihaly was an active teacher.

Fagaras/Fogaras/Fogarasch developed during
the Middle Ages around a castle.
A local legend says that Negru Voda left the castle
to travel south past the Carpathians to found the
Principality of Wallachia, although Basarab I is
traditionally known as the 14th
century founder of that state.
By the end of the 12th century the castle was
made of wood, but it was reinforced in the 14th
century and became a stone fortification.

In the 20th century, Fagaras's castle was used
as a stronghold by the Communist regime of Romania.
During the 1950s it was a prison for opponents
and dissidents of the regime.
After the fall of the Communist regime in 1989,
the castle has been restored and is
currently used as a museum and library.

These days the most important atraction in the
city are the fortress, Radu Negru High school,
Reformed Church, Chatolic Church.
Unfortunatly economicaly the city is broken as most of
the factories were closed after the 1989 revolution.
Large part of the city population emigrated
as guest workers to Italy, Spain and Ireland.

For a more information about
Fagaras see Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia